Ever since the massive success of 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, found footage has been a staple of the horror genre. Even George A. Romero experimented with it in one of his last (and also criminally underrated) films, Diary of the Dead (2007). Yet, now, more than 20 years after The Blair Witch Project, the subgenre has become stale. The grainy, shaky shots have become cliché. Even Blair Witch Project became such a part of the zeitgeist that it was spoofed mercilessly. At this point, for any director and screenwriter to use found footage as a technique, they better do something innovative. Cue Followed, the directorial feature debut by Antoine Le, written by Todd Klick. The film’s uniqueness lies in its method of storytelling. Followed’s narrative is told through vlogging, and by using this method, the movie updates the found footage technique to reflect and comment upon influencer culture. It’s a smart take on what has generally become an exhausted subgenre. The plot unfolds click by click, through a series of vlogs sequenced on a website.
Check out the trailer for Followed:
To be clear, Followed isn’t the first horror film to tell a story through a computer screen. Unfriended (2014) did so, but it told its story through a screencast of a MacBook. Followed is different because it centers on vlogging and constant live streaming. Its protagonist, Mike/DropTheMike (Matthew Solomon), is a social media celebrity, eager for a $250,000 sponsorship from the clothing retailer Haute Gothic. He has to gain 50,000 subscribers by Halloween night to win.
From the outset, the film plays with the concept of reality. The opening alludes to true events, and the “Hotel Lennox” the crew stays at could be any hotel on a ghost hunting show with shadowy figures, a dank basement, and creepy sounds. Followed was filmed at the Hayward Manor Hotel and Hotel Normandie, which is listed as one of the most haunted hotels in LA. Furthermore, the film makes clever use of the elevator urban legend. If you press a number of buttons in a certain order, you can open the portal to another dimension. The film uses that urban legend to put the characters in touch with Meghan Kim, a tourist whose body was found dehydrated and burnt in the hotel’s heating system.
In an article for Horror Homeroom about Unfriended and the found footage genre, Shellie McMurdo references Jeffrey Sconce’s theory on haunted media and ghost story tropes. She writes,
“Traditionally, the ghost story hinges on the idea of the unfamiliar or supernatural appearing as a rupture in the mundane reality of everyday life; in other words, a ghostly happening in a credible setting. In Unfriended, the credible setting is protagonist Blaire’s (Shelley Hennig) laptop screen and the film’s use of familiar interfaces such as Google, Facebook, Youtube, and Messenger. The inclusion of familiar icons and sounds (down to the tapping of Blaire’s fingers on the keyboard) all act as markers of authenticity. They then also act as markers of continuity, marrying our real world to the fictitious setting of the film and pulling us into its call to play, where the mundane reality of internet-based communication is a site of threat and horror.”
Matthew Solomon as Mike
For Mike, specifically, vlogging is reality. The story progresses through a series of clicks, as a viewer whom we don’t see accesses video after video of DropTheMike and his film crew staying at the haunted hotel. The website containing the videos could be YouTube or any other content site familiar to our reality. Like Unfriended, Followed uses clicks and even a few IMs here and there to establish authenticity and continuity. Each new click of a video advances the narrative.
Yet, there is always a divide between what’s real and what isn’t within Followed. In one of his few moments of candor and honesty, Mike confesses to his director of photography, Chris (Tim Drier), that he doesn’t believe in the supernatural. It’s clear, then, that he only uploads new content because he buys into influencer culture. Ghost hunting and visiting the locations of grisly murders is a niche market he wants to mine. He becomes more desperate for subscribers after his fiancé, Jess (Kelsey Griswold), tells him, via video chat, that she’s pregnant. However, even this intimate conversation is something Mike captures on video, and it occurs with his film crew in the background, listening and observing. There are no moments in his life that are private anymore.
Sam Valentine, Karen Sagoo, and Matthew Solomon in Followed
Even as the scares ramp up, especially near the third act of Followed, Mike refuses to stop vlogging. Everything must be filmed. No matter the danger, Mike tells his viewers to keep subscribing. He needs the numbers to win the cash and have economic stability. In another rare moment of honesty, Mike admits to his crew that he needs the money because Jess makes all the income, constantly working overtime as a nurse. Oddly enough, he never stops to think that maybe he should apply for an actual 9-5 job. His film crew friends never suggest it either. Can one earn a living from vlogging with enough subscribers? Mike certainly thinks so.
His flashes of truth and openness are rare. Most of the time, he’s amped up, always in front of the camera, even razzing his friends with silly pranks to scare them. The vlogging personality consumes him to the point that it makes it difficult to relate to him as a protagonist. Most of the time, he comes across as a jerk. Perhaps that’s the point. He rarely lets his guard down. He’s always performing. There’s little about him that comes across as authentic.
There’s another major divide that exists in the film, too, between LA’s gritty Skid Row section, featuring the pop-up tents of the homeless, and the consumer/influencer culture that drives Mike’s life. Though Mike’s crew films the homeless population on the way to the hotel, Mike is undaunted by it. He views it through the lens of new content to publish. Even when a homeless man suddenly squeegees the car, he doesn’t stop to think about the man’s situation, nor does he give the man money. Yet, he constantly offers his film crew money to stick around long enough to assist him with the project. All of his actions center on his streaming channel and determination to win the sponsorship.
Sam Valentine and Tim Drier
Mike’s ultimate fate is reminiscent of Heather’s (Heather Donahue) in The Blair Witch Project. In one of the most famous scenes, Heather holds the camera up to her face. Snot drips from her nose. Tears roll down her cheeks. She apologizes to her friends’ parents for their demise. She lost control of the narrative, and as a result, she lost her sanity. Without spoiling too much, Mike suffers a similar fate. He, too, loses control of the narrative and has a similar honest confession near the finale.
Yet, the ending of Followed is far more muddled than The Blair Witch Project, and it’s the film’s real flaw. The landing doesn’t quite stick, and the payoff isn’t quite earned. That said, the film really succeeds in taking the found footage genre and doing something smart with it, telling a narrative through a series of vlogs, while commenting on influencer culture.
Followed is now streaming on Amazon and other platforms.
Brian Fanelli is a previous contributor to Horror Homeroom. He also writes about the genre for Signal Horizon, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and HorrOrigins. His creative writing has been published in The Los Angeles Times, World Literature Today, Paterson Literary Review, Main Street Rag, Blue Collar Review, and elsewhere. Brian has an M.F.A. from Wilkes University and a Ph.D. from Binghamton University. He is an assistant professor of English at Lackawanna College. Recently, he joined Twitter.
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